Imagine working in a job where many of your coworkers didn’t even know your position existed.

That’s exactly what happened with Walter Ennis, an Atkins native who served in Vietnam as part of a specialized U.S. Army program called the Combat Tracker Teams (CTT).

Ennis was drafted into the Army at age 19 and left for basic training on Jan. 7, 1968 — his 20th birthday. Upon arrival in Vietnam in June 1968, Ennis was approached by a CTT recruiter. The CTT recruiters chose candidates based on their backgrounds and physical abilities.

“They wanted farm boys, hunters, people who were used to being in the outdoors,” Ennis said.

Ennis was sent to Malaysia for training at the British Jungle Warfare School. Soldiers in the program went through a grueling training to learn expert tracking skills.

“We were trained to track the enemy and to re-establish contact with them,” Ennis said.

The CTT teams were small units, generally consisting of five men — a team leader, visual tracker, two cover men and a dog handler — and a tracker dog. The teams were completed when they could work together and know what each person was thinking without speaking, as they moved through the jungle in absolute silence.

The Viet Cong would often attack U.S. Army camps at night, then fade back into the jungle by daylight. The CTT teams would be called in to track down the Viet Cong and re-establish contact with them. The unit worked with a platoon, working ahead of the larger group to maintain noise discipline and the element of surprise.

At times, this left them pinned down between the enemy and their support unit with bullets coming from both directions.

After his training in Malaysia, Ennis returned to Vietnam to the 25th Infantry Division and was assigned to the 66th Infantry Platoon Combat Trackers. He worked as a visual tracker and eventually became a team leader.

After serving one tour in Vietnam, Ennis returned home to a world that knew little to nothing about the CTT program. There was, in fact, so little documentation of the tracking teams that some former CTT vets had problems applying for benefits.

In 2003, Ennis was contacted by another CTT tracker who was attempting to get in touch with other CTT veterans. Ennis’ wife, Kathy Ennis, said prior to that, Ennis never spoke about his time in the war.

“We were married 35 years before I heard one thing about his service,” she said.

Beginning in 2004, Ennis has been to annual CTT reunions, held in various parts of the country. The reunions are an important time for the men because those from outside — even other Army veterans — don’t know what the tracker teams are or what their duties were.

The CTT veterans received permission in 2009 to lay a wreath and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington, D.C. In 2012, the Vietnam Patriot Riders led the entire CTT group from Canton, Ohio, to the Ohio Veterans’ Memorial Park in Clinton, Ohio. One of the tracker veterans had a marble memorial bench designed, inscribed with the names of all their fallen CTT comrades and tracker dogs that were killed in action, and the bench was dedicated during a special ceremony at the park.

Despite his service — and a fellow soldier who claims Ennis saved his life — Ennis said he doesn’t consider himself a hero.